A 73-year-old woman had a syncopal episode at home. During her work-up a 7.9 cm thoraco-abdominal aneurysm was found. Below is a transesophageal echocardiographic image of the aneurysm.. Notice the size of the plaque!

Compare the above clip with that of the transgastric view of the left ventricle. At least, it has good function.

And check out the aorta after the repair.

jnkdg

Maybe is where I work, but the kind of tattoos I find on my patients are sometimes quite disconcerting.

In the first place, what is this craze with tattoos? Am I growing that old that I still associate this body-art form with the criminal? I particularly do not care for inflicting any kind of pain on myself voluntarily. Often, those with the most tattoos are the most sensitive to pain and the worst drug seekers. Then is the small matter of infection. There is also a growing business stemming from tattoo-regret. The story is told of Charles XIV John, (the king of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death) who had a “Mort aux rois!” (“Death to kings!”) tattoed on his body during the French revolution when he was a sergeant in the French army. He later became king! I find a tattoo too defining.

And that brings me to the essence of this blog. Two tattoos have stuck with me. The first was on the chest of a young woman. It read: “Bob’s redneck bitch”! I am not a feminist but how can anyone mark themselves with that statement? The other was an image of a klansman with a noose. Now how definitive is that in terms of showing your narrow view of the world?

Maybe the body should not be used as a canvas.

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Delta Airlines started it’s non-stop flight to Ghana from NYC in December 2006. I flew to Accra in May with Delta and loved it. One did not get the condescending treatment that is typical on other airlines like British Airways and Lufthansa.

When one gets to NYC from Ghana, the joy is rudely interrupted. All connecting flights are usually gone. It’s like Delta assumed everyone who flies to Ghana lives in the New York area!

Delta – get your act together! You can capture all passengers flying from the US to Ghana. Most Ghanaians hate the transit in Europe and would rather fly direct. Either make more connecting flights available or leave Ghana late at night. This way, the arrival in NYC will be in the morning and connecting flights will not be a problem.

nana

Maybe it’s my African heritage that teaches a deep respect for your parents and elders or maybe it is a fear of the rod as I grew up in a home where it was not spared. So when I see a 15-year-old boy, presenting for surgery to a lower extremity because he was riding his 4-wheeler without a helmet at a speed that caught the cops attention and in the process collided with a tree yell at his mum, I almost loose it. When he tells his mum “..to shut up and go home and clean his room!”, that is where I want to give him a good hiding.

On one side, I blame parents who do not discipline their kids if the chickens come home to roost. Unfortunately, this deep disrespect of women translates into deep disrespect for female nurses and  physicians. And so rudeness towards his mum progressed to rudeness towards my resdent and circulating nurse who were both female.

Where is the rod when you need it?

jnkdg